New Delhi: Making it clear that PM Narendra Modi was the only global leader to have publicly called for peace and not war with Russian President Vladimir Putin listening in, India is understood to have conveyed to Ukraine that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adversarial comments against the prime minister were “unfounded”.
Diplomatic sources said India’s stand was conveyed to Ukraine through right channels. They added that India’s relations with any country was not based on what a third nation preferred.
Zelenskyy had on ‘X’ criticised Modi’s visit to Russia and the hug with Putin, saying it was a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day”.
He was referring to the incident in which a missile, allegedly fired from the Russian side, hit a children’s hospital.
The sources said it was made clear to Ukrainian authorities that Zelenskyy’s tweet was ill-timed and based on incomplete information. They said that Modi was the only world leader to have spoken for the need of peace and not war with Putin in attendance.
“Whether it is war, conflict or a terrorist attack, any person who believes in humanity is pained when there is loss of lives,” Modi said in a televised interaction with Putin during his viist to Moscow. “But even in that, when innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds and that pain is very terrifying.”
Modi also referred to his private conversation with Putin at his house, saying both had discussed the need for peace. “I thank you for the attention you are paying to the most acute problems including trying to find ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, above all by peaceful means, of course.”
He added, “Solutions are not possible on the battleground. Amidst guns, bullets and bombs, peace talks cannot be successful. We have to find the path to peace only through talks.”
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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